Homemaking

You know, I'm pretty good at the basics. I can clean (normally I can do a decent job of it when I have adequate time, things are not quite as clean as I like 'em right now), I can cook (pretty decently if I do say so myself-and Harold would agree and that's what counts, right?). Ok, that's the basics...

But as I was catching up reading a wonderful blog this morning Clover Lane I came upon her post about her list that she has finished. A list of all that needed to be "righted" in her home to make it what she wanted it to be. It's just beautiful (please, click on the link and it will take you directly to that particular post). And looks so finished. My house? Doesn't. I got all inspired. Then I remembered where I am in life. It's not gonna happen anytime soon. I have lived in this house for 4 years (plus a few months) and while it is small, it's ours and it's cozy. BUT, it needs some TLC.

Like I said, I'm good at the basics. I think the rest is pathetic due to my indecisiveness. I could blame it on lack of money. But really? There are ways to decorate on a dime. There are prob'ly millions of websites and other resources devoted directly to that.

I finally got my school room and was so excited to decorate my kitchen like a kitchen (rather than a school area). But have I? Nope. I sure haven't. I'm carrying around pictures I painted on little canvases for the kids' bathroom that I redid over a year ago (in my defense, that was a pretty big project as I skimmed the walls-to take away the unwanted and mixmatched texture in there-and painted the whole thing. Almost all by myself!). Those pictures are in my van because they need frames so I can hang them on the nice walls. By the time I get frames for them I will be more than ready to redo that bathroom. Why? Because I can't go to a dollar store and choose frames! I have furniture that I feel "meh" about. Don't hate it, but it's certainly not doing anything for me. (That stuff might have to wait due to finances, but I can at least be on the look out for reasonable replacements, can't I?)

So, in 2010 I'm going to make a list of things that will make my house more homey and more what I want it to be. It will mostly be simple things and it will take some creativity-both for the element of TIME (I will be homeschooling still as well as caring for an infant and a 3 year old) and money. I will have to be willing to ask for help at times. Help with the kids, help with deciding on pictures to hang on walls, help with the basics if I'm in the middle of a project. And help remembering the important things are not really in decorating but in the day to day lives of my children. (Which could also be something inspired by that particular blogger). I will make my list reasonable and give myself time and leniency.

My list will most likely not appear here (unless I really need to blog but am uninspired with anything else--but with all the dirty diapers-and cloth ones at that! and spit up coming my way? As well as older siblings and their "issues" with a new baby?? Come on! I'll have plenty of junk to write about.) but I hope to do something similar to Clover Lane when I'm finished. When I have some visuals to accompany what I've accomplished.